Tommy got a big boy bed!

It's official. My Tommy is not a baby anymore. Here he is in his big boy bed. He's very proud to be in a big boy bed now. He tells everyone we see that he got a big boy bed. Matt and I surprised him with Little Einsteins bedding (his favorite). And his Aunt Bobby, Uncle Dan, and cousins got him a Leo and Little Einsteins PJs, so he's all set. The picture above is his first night sleeping in his big boy bed. He did great. He didn't cry at all. He slept so soundly all night. He even waits for me in the morning to come get him out of bed just like Ally does. Yes, i know... i'm SO lucky. :) In the morning, I hear, "moooooo oooooooom" and he just waits until I come in to get him. :) I can't believe it. I really thought that he would be running all over the house in the middle of the night. So far, so good!!

Tommy's 3rd birthday!!!

I can't believe he's 3!! It's amazing to think that just over 3 years ago, i was waiting for his arrival! He's such a big boy now. He's doing awesome with potty training. And his speech seems to be improving. We are still going to get him screened on Jan 8th. I have definitely noticed an improvement, but I would still like a professional opinion. Not to mention, they may have ideas to help him learn. He is VERY smart, we know that for sure. But he learns differently than Ally did. It's hard not to compare, and it's even harder to think of new ways to teach him that will work with his learning style. He loves to read, so we are trying to read to him as much as possible. He can count, although you'd never know it. If someone asks him to count, he won't do it (doesn't like direct attention) but if you leave him alone, he'll be counting his toys and gets it right every time. Matt and I used to praise him when we'd hear him counting, but then he would stop and get embarrassed. So now, we just let him be and when he's done counting, we just smile to ourselves and look at each other.

He's getting SO big. He is very rambunctious, full of energy, and almost always happy. He keeps me on my toes, that's for sure. He's such a loving, happy little boy. He looks up to Ally SO much!! They really love each other. Even when they fight, you know it's only because he looks up to her and wants to be like her. Then she gets mad b/c he takes her toys or something. lol The real way he feels is apparent when he gets around strangers or a group of people. Anyone who knows him wouldn't think that he is shy, but he really can be very shy, and doesn't like to be the center of attention unless it's on his terms. If he's put in a position of attention being on him, instead of going to me or Matt, he looks for Ally and hides his face in her shoulder. She puts her arm around him and says, "are you being shy, buddy?" It's adorable.

Tommy's visit to the fire dept.

Today, Tommy and I went to the fire department with a friend of ours. They all had a great time. Tommy was a little overwhelmed at first, but he couldn't stop talking about it all day!!!

O, Christmas Tree

Today, we went looking for a Christmas Tree. It was cold, rainy, and icky out. But we still had a great time. We went to a Christmas Tree farm about an hour away. The kids had a great time.

After we found our tree, the kids and I went to the petting zoo while Matt loaded the tree up. Poor Tommy's teeth were chattering, so we went in to the store for some hot chocolate. The kids just loved that! They even got to meet Santa!! They were SO excited, although neither one would sit on his lap or really even talk to him. Tommy just hid his face in my chest and Ally whispered to me what she wanted to tell him. lol It was fun, though. They had a great time.

Ally's Christmas performance

Ally's class had a wonderful Christmas performance tonight. It was SO good! The kids all did a great job. They were so excited to be there. They sang Joy To the World, The Virgin Mary Had a Baby Boy, and Go Tell It on The Mountain. They did SUCH a great job. Go Tell It On The Mountain had really cute motions with it.

We were so proud of Ally for getting up there and participating. A year ago, she wouldn't have done that. She's really coming out of her shell! She was very proud of herself as well!!

The pictures of ally up on stage didn't turn out that great. It was dark in the audience with the stage lit up and my camera just wouldn't do a good job there. But at least you can see her up there doing the motions. She did SO great! :)

Halloween pictures!

I thought I would update with some halloween pictures. The kids had a great time this year. They really enjoyed it and seemed to get more involved with it this year than in years past. Luckily the kids were healthy on Halloween. All of us have been sick, but Ally, Tommy, and Matt all got well by Halloween night. I was still miserable (and still am) but I was still able to enjoy it with them. I managed to take them to about 10 houses before I thought I would collapse. We came home and Matt took them around the block. They came home with SO much candy!! They had a great time. Ally was an angel and Tommy was a turtle. They both loved dressing up. The next night, Tommy was getting in his pjs for bed and he said, "turtle costume?" And I said, "no, it's not halloween anymore". and he said, "but it's dark outside!" I guess he figured since we kept saying, "we can't go trick or treating until it's dark out" on halloween, that meant we could go every night when it got dark. lol

The night before Halloween, we carved pumpkins. Matt did all of the work while I watched and took pictures. The kids really loved that. We got a free toy in the mail from Matchbox, so Tommy spent a majority of his time playing with that. It's a haunted house that you put a Matchbox car in and watch it go from room to room. Both kids have had a lot of fun with that.

The big pumpkin is our family pumpkin. Matt took a design from The Nightmare Before Christmas and duplicated it. The ghostly pumpkin is Tommy's and the scary pumpkin is ally's. Ally designed her own pumpkin this year. Matt helped her cut it, but she drew it on a piece of paper and told Matt what she wanted it to look like.

Pumpkin Patch!

On Sunday we went to two fun Halloween-related activities. First, we went to a corn maze. It was 10 acres! It was a lot of fun. Mother Nature had destroyed some of the stalks, so the design wasn't perfect, but it was supposed to be a train. The kids didn't care about the flattened stalks. They had a great time. It took us quite a while to get through it, but we made it. There were little stations here and there with clues on how to get out. It was fun. Some of them had questions you had to answer and some had little drawings you had to uncover using a crayon and rubbing the paper they provided. The kids had a ton of fun playing in the dirt on the trails and collecting dried corn.

After we made it out, the kids got to see animals and play in swimming pools full of corn! It was so much fun. They absolutely loved that part. I think they would have stayed all day if they could!

Because of the strange weather we've been having, the pumpkin supply was very low there. After we were done playing in corn, we decided to drive to another pumpkin patch closer to our house. That's where we picked out our pumpkins. The kids had a great day. They really enjoyed themselves.